Sen. Richard Blumenthal Thursday said the first assassination attempt on former President Trump could have been prevented by better planning and communication.
On Thursday, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal announced more money is heading to the Secret Service.
It comes after an investigation he led into the first assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump back in July.
"This assassination attempt was shocking, unacceptable, and totally preventable. A tragedy that should have been stopped," said Blumenthal.
A new, bipartisan report from the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which Blumenthal chairs, finds that there was a lack of resources and inadequate communication the day a gunman opened fire at a rally, striking the former president and killing another man.
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"The lack of a working radio, a drone detection system, a counter-surveillance unit, lack of resources but also orders and chain of command," said Blumenthal. "That's why I am calling for a real house cleaning at the upper levels of Secret Service management."
Blumenthal says $231 million is going to the Secret Service to provide more resources, which include better equipment and technology, training and skills, as well as more staff to protect the president and vice president and other office holders.
"Secret Service has what we call done more with less. We were never very good at asking for money. We were never good at asking for more money," said Bobby McDonald.
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McDonald was a Secret Service agent for more than 20 years. He is now a lecturer in criminal justice at the University of New Haven.
While he says he is happy to see more funding, McDonald says the U.S. Secret Service has been a little complacent and needs to do better.
"We need to be getting back to the basics and doing the exact job of developing protective advanced methodologies for all of our protectees, making sure the arrival and departure areas are set, making sure the perimeters are set," said Mcdonald.
Blumenthal says they're investigating a second assassination attempt on Trump that happened earlier this month in Florida.
